Officials at the Barrington Area Library said they've found the library's next executive director to replace Detlev Pansch, who retired last fall after nine years as the lead administrator at the library.

But residents will have to wait a bit longer to know the name of Pansch's successor, said library spokeswoman Karen McBride.

The candidate, who library trustees selected as the next executive director, has asked not to be named until the candidate's current employer has more time to organize and launch its own replacement search, McBride said. But the new director does plan to start at the Barrington Area Library in mid-April, she said.

"The candidate has asked for three more weeks before any kind of announcement," she said.

Library trustees interviewed five candidates from around the country after Pansch retired in September, looking for a candidate with a solid background in library management, McBride said.

"The board of trustees also wanted someone with fresh ideas who would bring a new perspective to our organization and move forward," she said.

Library department heads and managerial staff who report directly to the executive director also interviewed the candidates, while the Kansas City-based search firm Bradbury Miller Associates spent a day at the library talking to staff members about their ideas for the library's next executive director, McBride said.

Library officials have said they hired Bradbury Miller Associates for $20,000 to carry out the job search.

"Bradbury Miller was trying to assess the needs and wants of the staff," McBride said. "It gave everyone a voice, which was important to the board to get staff included."

Following Pansch's retirement, library board members named Vicki Rakowski, head of library operations, as the library's acting interim executive director.

Pansch, who started as executive director in 2008, oversaw the completion of a significant building renovation in 2014 that brought the library's facility at 505 N. Northwest Highway "into the 21st century," McBride said in October.

Upgrades to the library, which originally was built in the 1970s, included new community meeting rooms, a larger children's section, expanded technological uses and new educational programs.

"(Pansch) guided the whole project and he brought in architects and designers, and he wanted staff and public input," McBride said. "It took years of planning."

The Barrington Area Library roughly serves 44,000 residents within 72 square miles, which is the largest geographic library district in Illinois, Barrington library officials have said.

Pansch's replacement also will be tasked with working with the seven-member library board and managing a full-time staff of 65 people, as well as a $7.1 million operating budget.